Our Heros Are Being Treated like Criminals, Why Are We Allowing This?

Army officer, First Lt. Michael Behenna facing a murder charge testified Thursday that he shot and killed an Iraqi after the detainee reached for his gun during an interrogation.

First Lt. Michael Behenna said he was trying to defend himself and hadn’t planned to shoot the detainee when he took him aside for questioning in the Iraqi desert. Behenna of Edmond, Okla. is charged with premeditated murder, assault and making a false statement. The premeditated murder charge carries a mandatory life sentence without parole. Forgive me but wouldn’t all killing at a time of war be considered premeditated?? Surely people didn’t think our troops were sent there to play tiddlywinks.

Prosecutors argue that Behenna intended to kill Ali Mansour Mohammed in May 2008 during an interrogation near a secluded railroad culvert near a U.S. military base. They’ve said Behenna had no remorse for the killing and justified it to others by saying Mohammed was a bad man.

Behenna testified Thursday at his murder trial at Fort Campbell that he defied orders to release Mansour because he wanted another chance to question the detainee he believed was involved in a roadside bombing in April that killed two members of his platoon.

He said he took drastic measures — stripping the detainee naked and interrogating him without authority — because he was trying to scare him into releasing the names of insurgents who were operating near Beiji, Iraq. Personally I would hardly classify his measures as drastic, we are after all, at war.

He verbally threatened the detainee, saying he was going to kill him if he didn’t talk, and finally pulled out his pistol and pointed it at him, Behenna testified.

At that point, Behenna turned his head to look at the Iraqi translator next to him. When he looked back, Mohammed had gotten up from his seated position and was moving toward the gun, Behenna said.

“I was scared Ali Mansour was going to take my weapon and use it on me,” Behenna said. “This happened very fast.”
Behenna said he shot him twice, once in the head and once in the chest.

Defense attorneys also argue that Behenna suffered from an acute stress disorder at the time of the shooting because of the horrific scene he witnessed during the bombing in April.

Family members testified that he was visibly shaken up when he returned home on leave shortly after. “He didn’t seem happy as he normally is and a little bit distant,” said Vicki Behenna, his mother.

Another soldier charged in the case, Staff Sgt. Hal Warner, pleaded guilty this month to charges of assault, maltreatment of a subordinate and making a false statement. Warner, from Braggs, Okla., was sentenced to 17 months in prison.

There is something seriously wrong when our military has to come back from fighting a war that our government sent them to fight and defend themselves against shooting someone. It would be very interesting, to say the least, to see how these judges that are putting our heros in jail, would react in similar situations. They left their families, homes and friends to do a job that they were sent to do so why in hell are they being treated like criminals??? The detainee, Ali Mansour Mohammed , made an attempt to grab his weapon and the Lt. responded appropriately. Any other response from First Lt. Michael Behenna would have most likely meant him returning home in a pine box.

16 Comments

The gubment convicted this soldier to unpremeditated murder and sentenced him to 25 years. BUT WAIT……

By the grace of GOD it was discovered the prosecution withheld key and pertinent evidence that was further proof of the Lt.’s innocence by self defense in regards to how the alleged terrorist assumed room temperature. Seems that numerous top experts either did, or were willing to testify that Mr. Mansouer was standing and reaching, presumably for the gun, when shot in close quarters. It was obvious he was not squating on the small rock pile with the Lt. standing up in front of him and to the side as the prosecution alleged. BTW, The position of the Lt. and Mr. Mansouer was the only thing the eyewitness, an Iraqi, was able to see according to his testimony. From the prosecutions scenario, it is absolutely impossible for the pair to have entered and exited the way they did according to all experts including the guru of guru’s hired by the prosecution! Unfortunately, once they heard his conclusions in private, they supressed the inlformation from the defense in a clear violation of Brady Law. This was discovered in a very unusual and honorable way from the prosecutors expert witness that was not called to testify. A motion for a mistrial was filed by the defense and heard by the judge who ordered testimony via telephone from the Prosecutions’s expert witness without the Panel Members present. He testified Mr. Mansouer could not have been sitting the way the Prosecution claimed and that he told them days earlier that he must have been standing, which is exactly how the Lt. said! They withheld this information from the defense despite the Defense attorney asking if they had any more information to be turned over before the trial concluded.

At the point of discovery, a verdict was in but sentencing was pending. Sentencing continued despite the new information that the panel members were totally unaware of. The motion and expert’s testimony was heard and the outcome of this trial is still pending another hearing on March 20.

There are plenty of facts not made public and unseamly behavior in this trial.
Now our soldiers are having to prove self defense for doing what we asked them to do. It’s obvious this young man is a patriot and a hero! It’s disgraceful!

You would think that our own government would do the extra distance to make sure our men and women who serve this country under some of the more horrific conditions and pressures would at given at least a fair hearing. Our heroes are being prosecuted unfairly and cruelly. How the hell are our men and women supposed to do their jobs if this is what they face?? Yes, disgraceful!

Michael receives a free defense team from the Army. In fact, he was free to hand select a JAG officer in the Army through an Individual Military Request. Why should people help to defray costs of the expensive legal team that he selected himself?

Maybe he felt he could get better representation outside of the Army. It’s his choice and it’s the choice of anyone if they want to help him with his costs. He should never have been put in the position he’s in anyway. Our government sent him over there, told him to do his job then decided they didn’t like the way he did it. I’m not sure I would trust our govn’t to represent me either.

You are a very foolish woman if you believe for one second that this soldier would receive an adequate defense atty thru the military. The Army already is assuming the role of judge,jury and prosecutor now you believe that they can play defense as well. WAKE UP!!!

If you were in the middle of a divorce would you allow your husbands atty to represent you? Of coarse not, as this is a conflict of interest.
If your child was injured by a toy Mattel produced would you allow Mattel to provide you with one of their lawyers to pursue your claim?

If you chose not to give that’s your business but dont you dare try to discourage others from giving but incinuating he has access to good representation thru the Army.

Both of my grandfathers were in the Army, my father the Navy, my uncle the Marines and my husband was in the Navy. I have to tell you when my son started talking about the military, my entire family talked him out of it. Our soldiers are there being cut up with pocket knife, chainsaws etc and we have military personel sitting in prision for putting underwear on prisioners heads??? To be charged with murder for shooting a prisioner that threatened your life???
They are there defending all of us and no one will defend them when they need us. People like you, with no sense of what is right or wrong, that come to a site, say your peace and leave, never stopping to think for a moment that without people like Michael, you may have been speaking Arabic right now and wearing a scarf over your face! Maybe as more and more families direct their children away from the military and fools like you are no longer free to say what you wish, maybe then you’ll look back with regret and wish you parted with a buck or two!

We need everyone’s help to bring national attention to this. Every conviction is approved by the General, which will be the Gen. of 101st. He has the ability to read through this entire case and see how the Trial Counsel did withheld exculpatory evidence and then lied about not having any. If anything, help us bring attenting that the Gov’t can NOT get away with their conduct! They have an independent respobsiblity as prosecutors to find out the truth whether it helps them or not! These 3 prosecutors, CPT Meghan Poirier, CPT Jasob Elbert, and CPT Erwin Roberts did not seek to find the truth, the just wanted to win!

There are groups now on Facebook, Twitter, and DIGG.
Continue to help 1LT Michael Behenna! Please contact me for full story and pass this story on to everyone you know!

His soldiers turned him in for the murder. Almost every soldier in his platoon were given an Artical 15 for hiding the truth from the chain of command. Now with the help of his mother and other lawyer in Oklahoma he’s trying to get out of it. Let’s say it happens and he gets out of this. Do you think for a second the Army is going to give back the time and money they took from his soldiers. Hell no. They have no one fighting for them. No one.

This is an outrage! Why in the hell were they going to RELEASE a KNOWN member of Al-queda to begin with? They should all face the same fate as Saddam did. They should be set up in the streets and hung, PROUDLY and PUBLICLY! It seems that the judicial system here has forgotten why we are hunting them down to being with. What was the death toll on 9-11 again? You know, the day that THEY killed THOUSANDS of Americans on OUR soil? So to have any of them treated as “victims” disgusts me. He simply saved that terrorist the trouble of making a vest of bombs, and likely saved many innocent lives in the process. He is a HERO who is being wrongly accused of murder! People die in war-that’s how the rules work.

My heart goes out to this American hero and his family. I cannot even begin to process that this fine young soldier is being charged with murder. The US wouldn’t be in the middle east if it wasn’t for the murders committed on American soil and abroad. This is war and he did what he had to do with only seconds to resond. How dare anyone monday night quarter back this soldier’s decision. I am appauled!!!! He should be receiving a medal of valor not a PRISON SENTENCE! America needs to stand by him in spite of the morans who have decided to send him to prison.

WTF you ask people to do a job that half of this country wont cant or think someone els will do and when they do they there job you cry foul. Go and fucken serve and than you can bitch until than Shut the fuck up you candy ass. There job is to kick ass and come home to there loved ones and if someone makes a wrong move well I got to say STUPIT HAS TO HURT SOMETIME.

This Country asked people to fight and when we do you say we cant fight that way.
When you let the dog out of the cage let it fight and when they are done bring them home to a hero’s welcome.
If you dont like what I have said to bad. TO BAD
I will always back my brothers in arms rite or wrong that is what brotherhood is about.
Cpl Smith